The new exhibit showcases a collection of works that offers space to consider the times in which we live.

Our world is in constant flux. We ride the ebb and flow, sifting through layers of complexity in search of a clarity that we can anchor onto. From inward we look out, observing that what goes up, doesn’t always come down. We seek solace in our connections, to tame the currents swirling around us, and find solid ground, for a while. It’s the nature of things.

Artists featured at the new show include:

Jack Dale (painting)

Allison Johanson (painting)

Samuel Johnson (pottery)

Eleanor McGough (painting)

Wendy Westlake (painting)

At The Mill Yard opening reception we are working on something delicious (stay tuned!)

The Mill City. Residents celebrate our area’s industrial heritage of the mighty Mississippi River and the mills. Today, what we see are the most recognizable Minneapolis landmarks. However, this is only part of the story. Rail lines were key to Minneapolis’ growth, and were particularly integral to the Mill District, bringing in wheat and timber and shipping out flour and lumber. We also honor the history of the mills, the reason for the rail yard’s existence. The Mill Yard aims to be both a gathering place for art and artists and a conduit by which art can be shared with and disseminated into the wider community.

The Mill Yard at Stonebridge Lofts thanks Luke Kleckner, Condo Development and Sales, for his generous sponsorship.

Jack Dale was born in St. Paul, MN and has made his home here for all but 3 years. He grew up in St. Paul and attended the University of Minnesota on a hockey scholarship. He played on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Hockey team and three years as a professional before suffering a career-ending knee injury. He turned his attention to art, which he had studied in college, and has been a painter for over 40 years. He was a member of Groveland Gallery in the early eighties when he was doing mostly landscape work and is very pleased to be represented by the Veronique Wantz Gallery today. Jack has had numerous solo and group shows and his paintings have been collected all over the country. His abstract expressionistic paintings are known not for the images that are represented, but for the emotions that they evoke. It is in this sensorial space where intuition takes over, and the viewer finds a place to engage on a deeply personal and powerful level. “As a mark-maker the paint carries me on a journey of understanding: allowing me to make sense of the world around me and vocalizing feelings that can’t always be easily explained.”

Allison Johanson is a contemporary painter from Saint Paul. She grew up near the north shore of Lake Superior and enjoys referencing the vastness of the lake and sky as well as the nostalgia she feels about her rural upbringing. Allison’s abstract landscapes are rooted in the beauty found in the natural world, and they speak about the mystery found in distant horizons. Her intuitive painting style yields soft and immersive works that create feelings of connectedness. “I love to create paintings that subtly engage and communicate a quiet mood yet provide interest upon closer observation. Seeing the artist in the textures, brush strokes and mark making is what excites me most about original art.”

Samuel Johnson was born on the Eastern prairie of the Red River Valley. He studied painting and ceramics at the University of Minnesota at Morris, serving an apprenticeship in pottery under Richard Bresnahan. He has been a guest of Denmark’s Design School in Copenhagen, worked in a studio in New York, and traveled to Japan as a guest of Koie Ryoji. In 2005, Johnson earned graduate degrees in fine art from the University of Iowa. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Central Minnesota. Johnson’s work reflects today’s malleable socio-political climate through both the process of shaping wet clay and its transformation through fire. As raw unglazed vessels are fired in a kiln, each are marked by wood, heat, melting ash and charcoal resulting in a somber patina of natural hues and irregular textures. The work is intended to be mysterious and enigmatic in ways that feel familiar. “My work strikes a balance between the wild and mysterious character of ourselves and that part of our psyche that sets us apart from it, containing contradictory elements that provoke a sense of mystery and gravitas and suggest those aspects of our nature that is just on the other side of consciousness.”

Eleanor McGough grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from Kansas City Art Institute. She also studied at the Polytechnic in Brighton, England. She is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board Grants and a Bemis Foundation residency. McGough’s paintings explore our fleeting place in the vast patterns of weather, migrations, and time. Imagined life forms inhabit terrestrial, aquatic, or atmospheric spaces, revealing fragile and tenuous relationships within these complex systems. She is influenced by the research of high altitude entomology that details the astonishing fact that billions of insects are carried in air currents through the layers of our atmosphere. This idea serves as a visual metaphor to the broader context that all life is transitory and swept up in immense patterns of energy. “I am drawn to insects for their metamorphosis and find hope in the idea that transformation is an enduring possibility and cause for optimism as life on our planet evolves.”

Wendy Westlake was born in Washington state. She earned an Associate Degree in Applied Art from Pima College in Tuscon AZ, where she studied a wide range of media including oils, printmaking and ceramics. Upon moving back to MN in 1992, Wendy connected with the watercolor community in the Twin Cities area. She became a Board Member of the Minnesota Watercolor Society in 2012 eventually becoming MNWS President from 2014-2016. A desire to work on a larger scale than paper would allow pulled Wendy back to her earlier training with acrylic and oils. Her work is influenced by her background in watercolor as well as the tradition of American Abstract Expressionism. Wendy’s poignant graphical forms bring order within a place of chaos: shapes overlap and interconnect, with redacted and transparent elements changing our view. Her paintings expand on the idea that everything is connected and questions the way in which we read the truth. “I begin by flinging paint on canvas with great abandon and then search for order in the chaos, highlighting some shapes while losing others, defining and editing, pushing toward resolution.”